In the least-surprising sexual-orientation revelation since – well, since EVER! – flamboyant “American Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert announces in the new Rolling Stone cover story he is gay.

“I don’t think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I’m gay,” Lambert says in the interview. The magazine hits newsstands Friday.

Lambert, who last month finished second to Kris Allen, despite being the judges’ favorite in the hit show’s eighth season, “bares all” in the story, “Wild Idol: The Psychedelic Transformation and Sexual Liberation of Adam Lambert,” Rolling Stone said in a release.

He details his experience on “Idol,” his thoughts on Allen and how his sexuality impacted his Idol run. He also talks “about his childhood (”I started to realize I wasn’t like every other boy,” he says), the drug-fueled epiphany that led him to AI (”I realized that we all have our own power, and that whatever I wanted to do, I had to make happen”) and his run on the show (”I was like, ‘I’m going to glue rhinestones on my eyelids, bitch!’ “),” the magazine says.

And yes, he talks about his sexuality. “Right after the finale, I almost started talking about it to the reporters, but I thought, ‘I’m going to wait for Rolling Stone, that will be cooler,’ ” he told the magazine. “I need to be able to explain myself in context.”

Lambert told the magazine, “I’m proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It’s just another part of me.” But he said there are other parts of his life that he’s trying to keep front and center.

“I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader,” he says. It was that mission that lead him to "Idol" after years in musical theater. “I knew that it was my only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it’s fast and broad,” he says.

In REAL Adam Lambert news, 19 Entertainment announced today he’s preparing to start work on his debut album, which is due for release this fall on RCA Records.

“To find a talent as exceptional as Adam Lambert is a rare and special event,” Simon Fuller, creator and executive producer of both “American Idol” and 19 Entertainment. “I am thrilled that 'American Idol' was the platform for the world to discover this brilliant young man. He is unique and unforgettable and a certain star of tomorrow.”“I’m thrilled that we’ve come to a creative and collaborative partnership and look forward to developing a really exciting album,” says Lambert. “We are 100% on the same page and are all anxiously awaiting the start of the recordings. It’s going to be ridiculous! Get Ready!!!”The 27-year-old Lambert, of San Diego, Calif., had four songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after the show, with his interpretation of “Mad World,” “No Boundaries”, “A Change Is Gonna Come” and “One.”Lambert will record his album over the summer while on the road with the live “Idol” tour, which kicks off July 5 in Portland, Ore. It stops at Philadelphia’s Wachovia Center Aug. 20, Reading’s Sovereign Center on Sept. 8 and Wilkes-Barre’s Wachovia Arena t Casey Plaza on Sept. 9.

Thirty-three singers have won slots in the semi-finals of Musikfest’s Stars of Bethlehem competition. They’ll compete at 1 p.m. June 28 at the Banana Factory in Bethlehem for a chance to be one of eight finalists to perform live at Musikfest’s Americaplatz stage at 9 p.m. Aug. 5.

The winner will receive a prize package that includes $500 and a booking at Musikfest 2010.

The no-service-fee lawn seat discount that Live Nation announced last week will be extended to every single available ticket in each of its amphitheaters this Wednesday, the huge concert-venue-ticket conglomerate announced today.

The sale will be for 24 hours only, exclusively at www.LiveNation.com, the announcement said.

Last week’s debut of “No Service Fee Wednesday” spiked ticket sales five-fold over the average number sold on Wednesdays, LiveNation said.

“Music fans, we heard you loud and clear,” Live Nation President and Chief Executive Officer said Michael Rapino said. “So we have made ‘No Service Fee Wednesday’ even bigger and better by making even more tickets more affordable. Our job is to get as many fans as possible to the show to see their favorite artists. We’re helping to do that by dropping the service fee on all tickets in our amphitheaters this Wednesday only at LiveNation.com.

“Fans everywhere took advantage of Live Nation’s no service fee offer, which helped more concertgoers get to more shows for less money.

Tickets for this week’s “No Service Fee Wednesday” go on sale at 12:01 a.m.

While the service fee has been dropped, parking and certain venue fees and taxes still apply, LiveNation noted. LiveNation had been publically criticized for announcing the "service fee" sale but still collecting parking fees, whether or not concert-goers were parking.

The new sale means, for example, buyers of loge-level tickets for Dave Matthews Band’s Sept. 19 show at Susquehanna Bank Center will save $14.70 on what would have been an $89.70 ticket. Even for a lawn ticket for No Doubt on June 11 at Susquehanna, the savings would be $5 on a $15 ticket.

Live Nation announced last week it will drop service fees on lawn tickets to hundreds of Philadelphia-area amphitheater concerts every Wednesday throughout the summer. At the time, Live Nation called it "the biggest sale in concert history," saying it could reduce prices on 5 million tickets.

The promotion is not valid in combination with other special pricing offers and is subject to availability. Tickets without service fees are available at all Live Nation-ticketed amphitheaters for concerts including:

Area shows at Live Nation amphitheaters include:

SUSQUEHANNA BANK CENTER

– CAMDEN, N.J.

June 11: No Doubt with Paramore and The Sounds

June 18 & 20: Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band

June 23: Def Leppard with Poison and Cheap Trick

June 24: The Fray with Jack’s Mannequin and Richard Swift

July 11: Nickelback with Papa Roach, Hinder and Saving Abel

July 17: Vans Warped Tour with 3OH!3, Less Than Jake, Chiodos & many more

July 19: Crue Fest 2 ft Motley Crue with Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman & more

“American Idol” winner Kris Allen has signed with 19 Recordings and has recordings have been licensed to Jive Records – the home of Justin Timberlake and last year’s “Idol” runner-up David Archuleta, 19 Entertainment announced today.

He will be only the second "Idol" winner to release a debut on Jive Records inbstead of RCA, following season six winner Jordan Sparks.

19 Entertainment also represents “Idol” runner-up Adam Lambert, the glam-rocker judges’ favorite whom Allen defeated to win the eighth season of the popular Fox-TV show. But Lambert’s discs will be released by RCA Records, as have other Idol winners’ since first-season winner Kelly Clarkson.

The Jive/RCA arrangement with this year’s top two “Idol” contestants is the exact opposite of last year’s, when winner David Cook released his debut disc on RCA and runner-up Archuleta on Jive. Archuleta’s disc debuted higher on the charts, but Cook’s has sold more.

RCA in recent years has dropped other “Idol” runners-up, such as Clay Aiken and Katharine McPhee.

"Kris won the hearts of millions of Americans with his soulful voice, good looks and gracious demeanor,” 19 Entertainment founder and Chief Executive Officer Simon Fuller said in a statement. “However it is his passion for music and love of performing that will make sure Kris stands the test of time and makes 'American Idol' proud.”

Also in a statement, Allen said, "as exciting as the last few months have been, I'm really looking forward to what is next. I'm very grateful to be working with Simon Fuller and his team at 19 Entertainment, along with Barry Weiss and Jive Records on my debut album.”

Allen’s debut disc now is slated to be released in fall, the according to the announcement.

Allen said his sound will be “very similar to what you heard from me on the show -- definitely in the pop/rock genre.”

“Everyone's been asking me what [the album's] going to sound like,” he said. “It will be I can't wait to get started."

Jive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Barry Weiss said, “Kris had a terrific run of memorable performances culminating with an incredible win. He’s a super-talented singer and all-around gifted musician who has that rare common touch which will give him the ability to connect with the broadest possible audience. We’re really excited to welcome him to the Jive family.”

Allen’s popular victory song “No Boundaries” is at No. 23 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles chart this week. In addition, he has two singles on the chart from his “American Idol” performances: “Heartless” and “Ain't No Sunshine.”

Currently Kris is gearing up for the upcoming 50-city American Idol 2009 Summer Tour. The tour kicks off on July 5th in Portland, Oregon and ends on September 15th in Manchester, New Hampshire. Allen’s debut album is slated for release late Fall 2009.

Rock singer Bret Michaels had a run-in with some stage scenery at the Tony Awards.

Michael was injured after he and his hair-metal band Poison performed "Nothin' But a Good Time" with the cast of the Broadway musical "Rock of Ages," Sunday during the Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

The incident happened as Michaels exited the stage, and a descending set piece smacked him on the head and knocked him to the ground, after taking part in the award show's opening production number, featuring performances from the season's Broadway musicals.

Tonys spokeswoman Christina Stejskal says the rocker "missed his mark." Though it looked it, he did not break his nose. Stejskal did not immediately know the extent of his injury.

"Rock of Ages" which stars former American Idol finalist Constantine Maroulis, celebrates 1980s hair music and features songs by Journey and other bands

First New Kids on the Block came back. Now, a year later another Boston-based boy band is reunited.

LFO, who ruled the radio airwaves in the summer of 1999 with their hit “Summer Girls” (the one with the lyrics “I like girls that wear Abercrombie and Fitch”), has reunited and will hit the road this summer, starting with a July 9 show in Atlanta.

They’ll play Philadelphia’s Northstar Bar on July 17, New York City’s Highline Ballroom on July 18 and Allentown’s Crocodile Rock Café on July 21.

Tickets for the Croc Rock show are $25. LFO’s MySpace page, www.myspace.com/lfo and Croc Rock’s Web site, www.crocodilerockcafe.com, also say 12 VIP tickets are available at $100 each that include the group’s sound check, “time with us on our bus, backstage where available, etc.” Opening the show will be Rookie of the Year, Go Crash Audio and Kiernan McMullen.

LFO announced its return Wednesday on its MySpace page. “LFO is back together.

LFO is going on tour,” said the announcement, apparently written by member Brad Fischetti.

Fischetti had written on May 31 that he and band mates Rich Cronin – the group’s principal writer and frontman – and Devin Lima “have been spending more time together than we have in years. … We have had more fun together over the past week than we have ever had together. This time apart has allowed each of us to become more comfortable in our skin and, therefore, better able to cohabitate with one another. … And for the first time in a long time, there seems to be a light at the end of the LFO tunnel.”

After ‘NSync, Backstreet Boys and perhaps 98 Degrees, LFO – for “Lyte Funky Ones” -- arguably was the most popular and successful of the late-‘90s boy bands.

Their self-titled debut album sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide and scored two Billboard Top 10 hits: "Summer Girls" and "Girl on TV." Managed by boy band guru Lou Pearlman, who also founded ‘NSync and Backstreet Boys, they opened on tours for both those groups and Britney Spears. Their second album, “Life Is Good,” had another hit with “Every Other Time,” but only hit No. 75 on Billboard.

The band headlined Nickelodeon's All That Music & More tour at Allenown Fair in 2000 and was scheduled to play Crocodile Rock in 2001, but pulled out of the show. They stopped touring in 2001, but played together at Pearlman’s 50th birthday in 2004.

After the band broke up, Cronin struggled with leukemia, but also participated in the 2007 VH1 Reality Show "Mission: Man Band," forming another boy band with ‘NSync’s Chris Kirkpatric, Jeff Timmons of 98 Degrees and Bryan Abrams of Color Me Badd. Lima formed his own group, The Cadbury Diesel and in 2008 released their debut record “Mozart Popart.”

“Over the past five years, each of us as experienced extraordinary hardships and mind boggling joy,” .Fischetti wrote on the Web site. “Perhaps it's because of the (good & bad) experiences of the past several years that we are able today to be better friends and bandmates than we ever have been. We look forward to sharing some news and maybe some future good times with you.”

With his relaxed stage presence and laid-back, effortless delivery, Laurence Juber, former lead guitarist of Paul McCartney's Wings, made his audience at Foy Hall Friday night feel more like they were hanging out in his living room than sitting in a concert hall. His musical agility, the speed with which he shifted stylistic gears, and his complex harmonies kept the hall enraptured throughout the nearly two-hour solo show.

The breadth of his material is as astounding as the finesse he plays it with. Covers of Beatles tunes, popular songs like "Stormy Weather," classics like "Stand by Me" - all were transformed by his cool, bluesy style in a magical sleight of hand. His sound was rich and resonant, often punctuated by dramatic percussive techniques such as slapping the strings or thumping the soundboard. His Martin OM28, a prototype in maple, had a clear, wonderful voice.

In McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed," his guitar sounded more like a small orchestra - it was hard to believe he has only 10 fingers and six strings to work with. To add color and variation to his sound, he used at least three different types of tuning during the concert, seemingly switching from standard to DADGAD to pentatonic on the fly.

His own compositions ranged from the sweetly romantic "In Your Arms" to the hard-driving "Cobalt Blue," and even incorporated some Latin flavor like the Flamenco-inspired "Stolen Glances."

An amazingly introspective take on Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" served as a rousing encore.

The performance was part of the weekend's 9th annual Bethehem Guitar Festival.

Plyler said Musikfest was "working with other acts to fill the July 31 slot. We have a couple that we're looking at." She declined to say what other acts.

Musikfest said tickets will be automatically refunded to patrons or credited back to their credit card accounts. Plyler said she did not immediately know how many tickets had been sold. Tickets went on sale to the public a week ago.

Panic! had no word on the cancellation, or any other cancellation, on its Web site Friday night.

Panic! was largely seen as Musikfest's offering for 20-somethings amid a schedule of veteran acts, early-2000's rockers Third Eye Blind and last year's "American Idol" winner David Cook.

The Las Vegas band is touring in support of its 2008 psychedelic-tinged album "Pretty. Odd". It recently was announced as a supporting act for some of the shows on blink-182's highly anticipated reunion tour this summer.

The last Musikfest act to cancel after tickets went on sale was Sheryl Crow in 2002. Crow canceled just days before her show, and the slot was filled by then-hot rockers Fuel, who played consecutive nights.

Recently signed to major indie label Epitaph, Easton-based indie rock group Settle is celebrating the release of its disc "At Home We are Tourists" tomorrow night (June 6) at the Sterling Hotel in Allentown.

The group has toured in the area in various forms for eight years as an emo-leaving band, but the Settle found on this CD dips its toe into electro and dance music, with good use of synth and distortion.

Settle plays with complex orchestrations and layering of sounds but the lyrics are firmly in the emo camp, sensitive to the last. Driving guitar chords seem to compete with synth on some tracks, creating periodic sensory overload.

"At Home .." ends strong with crunchy rocker "On the Prowl, the energetic and fun "Kick. Win!" and the drum-heavy, space-y and driving "Dance Rock is the New Pasture".

Locals will love the rollicking, let's-roll-down-the-windows song "Affinity for My Hometown," on which the boys ask to get back to the 610.

In August 1999, when New Kids on the Block singer Joey McIntyre opened his first solo concert ever at Bethlehem’s Musikfest, he told the crowd, “I ain’t no kid anymore, baby!”

But 10 years later, McIntyre, 36, is a kid once more. After years of television, film and stage work and solo singing, he’s back on tour with the recently reunited 1980s seminal boy band. They play Saturday at Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, N.J., and Wednesday at Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton.

“It’s great. It’s great to change your mind,” McIntyre says in a recent telephone interview from his Los Angeles home. “And there’s not many time in life you can be a kid again. It’s a very unique situation. It’s funny for us because we can kind of be kids again and our fans can be kids again, but we’re doing it in a cool way and in a way that feels current and feels now. It’s a good mix.”

Current indeed. New Kids in September released a reunion disc, “The Block,” on which they worked with R&B singer Ne-Yo and others. It soared to No. 2 on Billboard’s albums chart, and now has charted its third single, “2 in the Morning,” after “Summertime” last year broke the top 25 and the follow-up “Single” just missed the Top 50.

The disc has put New Kids back on a similar track to where they were 15 years ago, when they had four albums that sold an estimated 20 million worldwide and nine Top 10 hits before disbanding in 1994.

And with shows that combine the hits with the new music, the group’s tour has not only sold well, but is getting reviews saying they not only “sound better than they ever did, they also look like they’re having even more fun than they did 20 years ago.”

“We take ourselves seriously but we don’t take ourselves too seriously ... With age comes a little bit of wisdom and a little bit of perspective that you might not have when you’re a teenager,” says McIntyre, who as the youngest member was not yet 12 when he joined the band.

“When you’re a teenager, you run in there and ‘bang, bang, bang’ and you’re out. You walk in, you just fill the role and there’s no romance involved,” he says, laughing. “So you just appreciate it a lot more now and you soak it up and you have good time, and that’s what we’re doing.”

McIntyre says the fans have responded.

“I think our fans are at a point in their lives where they have their careers, families and they just want to kind of get away for a little while and that what’s we provide. ... I think timing is everything, and I think this thing happened at the right time or a lot of our fans.”

McIntyre says it was good music that persuaded group members to get back together after several failed attempts, including by MTV for the 1999 Video Music Awards and by VH1’s “Reuniting the Band” in 2004.

“The fact that you have five different lives, tons of things professionally and just personally that we do, for us to come together there’s certain things you can’t describe — a certain magic has to bring us all together,” he says. “But we decided that its got to start with music, and let’s go into the studio and see if we still got it together and see if we’re going to have a good time and we feel challenged. And we did.”

McIntyre says the next step, getting the five members prepared for a tour, “was intense.” While he and Jordan Knight continued successful music careers — Knight had four Top 40 singles — and Donny Wahlberg had a successful acting career, Knight’s brother Jonathan had left show business because he suffered panic attacks and worked as a real estate developer.

“I live to be on stage; Jon lives not to be on stage,” McIntyre says, laughing. “So, yeah, it was tough to get everybody on the same page and have patience with everything and just step back and say, ‘OK, this is what we are, this is who we are and we’re perfect in our own way.’ ... But we worked it out.

“I think there were a lot of unanswered things, and I think \[now\] we were able to write the final chapter and say, ‘Yeah, we weren’t The Beatles, but what we did was special and what we did had heart and it had soul, and it’s worth taking a second look ... I think we had a great time doing this and our fans stepped up and we’ve had a blast.”

Asked whether there is a place for boy bands these days, McIntyre says he thinks there is.

“It’s all cyclical. To me there’s no difference ... with The Temptations and The Four Tops and The Jackson Five and New Edition and New Kids and ‘NSync and Backstreet Boys,” he says. “It’s vaudeville, you know? It all comes from something. We all get influenced by each other. There’s a certain torch that is carried throughout the generations, and we carried the torch and then you pass it along, hopefully.”

But he says the current teen phenomenon, the Jonas Brothers, are “not cut from that same mold.”

“They play a couple of instruments and whatever, but they’re not singing and dancing,” he says. “It’s sort of the same reaction, and people go ‘Oh, it’s a phenomenon’ and ‘Throw anybody out there.’ Well, yeah, go for it, see what happens. Who else did it? Backstreet Boys and ‘NSync. It’s not easy — a million things have to happen for a successful thing to happen. To have hits and have good pop songs and guys that can perform and sing, it’s not easy.”

After the summer tour, McIntyre says, New Kids will play two weeks in Australia, “then we wrap it up.” The band will take a break, but are open to working together again, he says.

“We’ve had one hell of a year, year and a half, of just an amazing ride,” he says. “The fans have dictated the pace and we’ve had to keep up with them and we felt like the summer tour was great to kind of end this chapter. And the door is wide open to the next chapter. We don’t know what that is and what that will be. ... But it’s been fun and it’s been challenging, and the good thing is that we still want to work with each other and see what’s out there."

In an attempt to give something back to fans, New Kids on the Block members have started The Let’s Get This Foundation: Helping the world, Step by Step.

In announcing the foundation, New Kid Joey McIntyre said it’s “about people coming together to learn how, in even the smallest ways, we can make the world a better place. We want this foundation to be a hub for all kinds of charitable works, a place where we can go to get involved in something that we are passionate about, a place where we can find a passion we didn’t know we had.”

“ ‘Let’s Get This’ was a phrase that we kind of coined in the last year or so, and it’s just about ‘Let’s get this, let’s do it,’” McIntyre said in a recent interview. “It can be as simple as ‘You want to do this interview? Let’s get this.’ You want to solve world hunger? Let’s get this. It’s just about going after something.

“I think a lot of people want to give back, they want to help out. They just don’t know how or they don’t think they’ll make a difference. And I think the foundation is about learning from each other and going after something and helping the world step by step.”

The foundation’s first program is a children’s book drive on this summer’s New Kids tour. Whoever brings a brand new children’s book to the show will get a free download of a new song McIntyre wrote called “Five Brothers and a Million Sisters,” which the group will perform at the show.

“It’s kind of an autobiographical song about the guys and the fans and stuff,” McIntyre said.

“There are studies that say in low-income families there are 13 books for every one child. In low-income families, there’s one book for every 300 kids. That’s how bad it is. In early reading there’s such a connection to all parts of our society. When you learn to read and you read early, you connect to things. There’s so many steps to it – we have to get families to read together and taking time out of their day, as hard as it is – and some families have to work three jobs, I understand that. But there is a huge void for the books, and we can fill it. We’re working with a great organization called First Book that knows where to get these books, and hopefully we’ll be able to do something. I think it’s going to make a great impact.”

In his blog, McIntyre tells fans that instead of spending money on “teddy bears andT- shirts or hats for us, maybe this summer you can spend it on a newbook for a child that really needs it. We fully appreciate all of the gifts you bring to the show and it is a sign of your artistry and love, but I know me and the guys would feel a lot better knowing that your gift went to a bigger cause.”

County singer Tim McGraw, whose 2005 Allentown Fair show sold out in less than an hour, making him the fastest-selling show in fair history, will return to play a Sept. 4 concert this year, it was announced today.

Opening for McGraw will be Chris Young, winner of the 2006 “Nashville Star” competition, for a show at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 4. Tickets, which are $69 and $55 and include fair admission when bought before the show date, go on sale at 10 a.m. June 20 at the fairgrounds box office, Ticketmaster locations and online. The show completes the fair’s 2009 Grandstand lineup.

In addition to selling out the 10,500-seat fair venue the fastest, McGraw held the show’s box office record until the Jonas Brothers eclipsed his $600,000 last year by grossing $700,000 for their 10,467-seat show.

It will be the first time McGraw, son of the late 1980 World Series-winning pitcher Tug McGraw of the Philadelphia Phillies, will perform in the region since the Phillies regained the world title last fall.Because Tim and his band the Dancehall Doctors are not on a full tour, the fair concert will be their only area performance this summer.

McGraw, 42, also performed at the fair in 1999, sending fans into a frenzy when be brought his father up on stage.

McGraw had 11 consecutive albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard albums charts. Last year he released his third greatest-hits CD after two decadesof hits, including “Live Like You Were Dying,”“I Like It, I Love It,” “Let It Go” and “I Need You.”He has had 30 No. 1 country singles and has sold 40 million albums,and won three Grammys Awards, 11 Country Music Association awards, nine American Music Awards and three People's Choice awards.

A year after his last fair a[ppearance, his 2006 Soul2Soul II tour with wife Faith Hill was the top-grossing tour in the history of country music.

Country teen sensation Taylor Swift even had her first hit with her love song “Tim McGraw.”

After winning “Nashville Star,” Young released a self-titled album that spawned two country-chart hits, “Drinkin’ Me Lonely” and “You’re Gonna Love Me.” This year he released his second album, “The Dashboard” with new singles “Voices” and “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song).”

The show will make it a two-night stretch of country at the fair. Brad Paisley with Dierks Bentley and Jimmy Wayne will play Sept. 5.

What in God’s name would possess Joe Jonas — generally viewed as the hunkiest of The Jonas Brothers — to put on a black leotard and high heels to dance to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” in what has become the latest viral video?

Here are our Top 4 reasons:

4. He’s the most buff of the three. True, none of the three Jonas Brothers are Arnold Schwartzenegger. But among the three, Joe is clearly the guy who buffs up. When the day Jonases visited the Philadelphia Eagles’ camp at Lincoln Financial Field in last summer, Joe disappeared for a good chunk of the time to pump iron and rejoined the group noticeable pumped, as if he knew what he was doing. So if one of them had to get into a leotard, Joe was the one who had the physique to do it.

3. He’s the jokester of the group. In addition to being the most natural frontman, Joe also likes to make people laugh. He has often said in interviews that he once aspired to be a stand-up comedian, and often jokes during interviews. In a March teleconference to announce the brothers’ upcoming tour — it kicks off June 20 and comes to Philadelphia’s Wachovia Center on July 23 and 24 — Joe was asked whether the brothers are too “controlled.”

“Well, what people don’t really understand is that we secretly are over the age of 40 and so we’ve already lived through our shelf life time, so we’re pretty just going back and trying to reinvent ourselves,” he responded, tongue-in-cheek. “But you know, in all seriousness, we are just – we are just having fun with what we do and playing music.”

2. He was aping Justin Timberlake. The Jonas video is a very obvious reference to the “Single Ladies” video send-up Justin and “Saturday Night Live” staffer Adam Samberg did on the show last year. As least Joe didn’t wear panty hose. But Justin is not only a huge star, he’s a trend-setter that tons of new acts are following. And that video’s success — 35 million views and counting on YouTube — leads us to the top reason Joe Jonas put on a black leotard and high heels and dance to “Single Ladies’:

1. He’ll do whatever he can to sell albums. With The Jonas Brothers’ new disc, “Lines, Vines and Trying Times” coming out Tuesday, Joe Jonas will do anything to get the word out: especially a video that promotes the disc and gets a million views in its first day.

Swift also finished behind country act Rascal Flatts (No. 42), for whom she was an opening act, and Toby Keith. She also wasbehind former boyfriend Joe Jonas and his brothers (No. 60).

She was between horror author Stephen King (68) and “Harry Potter” actor Daniel Radcliffe, who’s also 19.

Swift’s ranking no doubt was influenced by her earning for the year – just (!) $18 million for a ranking of 77. Madonna, by comparison, raked in $280 million and the Jonases $25 million.

But Swift this year released only her second album, and her star is clearly rising. According to Nielsen became the only artist ever to have two albums among the year's top 10 sellers. She also became the first country artist to sell 2 million downloads with three different songs, and recently embarked on her first headlining tour, selling out the Los Angeles’ Staples Center in two minutes and Madison Square garden in one.

The list had her Web popularity rank at 46, her press rank at 54 and TV/Radio rank at 42.

That's because to help eliminate scalping and ticket brokers buying blocks of tickets, all sales for the upcoming show will be exclusively through paperless ticket delivery, meaning buyers will not get a physical concert ticket for entry into the event.

Instead, on the day of show, concert-goers will need to bring the credit card they use for the ticket purchase and a government-issued photo ID to the concert. All members of the ticket purchaser's party will have to be present at the same time to enter the venue. The ticket-taker at the Wachovia Center will swipe their credit card upon entry and present each person in their party with seat locator slips for quick access into the show.

Buying paperless “helps ensure fans have secure and convenient access to event tickets at the original sale price,” an announcement of the event said.

Cyrus’s December 2007 appearance at Wachoia was one of the highest-demand events in its history.

Paperless tickets priced at $43.25, $63.25 and $83.25 for the Nov. 4 show will go on sale at 10 a.m. June 13 exclusively via www.ComcastTIX.com and 1-800-298-4200 (limit of four per household). There will be no box office or outlet sales.

Fan Club Presale tickets, also paperless, will be offered from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday. Updated tour information can be found at www.mileycyrus.com.

The Philly show will be part of Cyrus's 2009 North American Tour. The 45-show tour, featuring special guest Metro Station -- led by Cyrus' half-brother Trace Cyrus, launches Sept.14 in Portland, Ore.

Cyrus, 16, has signed on for a fourth season of her hit Disney Channel show “Hannah Montana,” it was announced Wednesday.

Disney Channel spokeswoman Hope Diamond said Cyrus will film the fresh episodes early next year. In between now and then, Cyrus will shoot the Nicholas Sparks drama “The Last Song,” do a concert tour and launch a new clothing line with designer Max Azria.

Cyrus co-stars with her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, on Hannah Montana, and recently appeared in the hit movie adaptation of the TV show.

On Sunday's MTV Movie Awards, she claimed the trophy for best song from a movie for her tune, “The Climb.”

One Of The Cool Things ...... about the rise of download culture has been the return of that guiltiest of all pleasures: the perfect single.

As a guy who writes and plays music, I've always been a big fan of the album-as-unified-piece-of-art, but there's still something to be said for the perfectly constructed single.

That's 3:34 of pure pop bliss: a hook a mile wide, a clever verse, and a chorus that you're still humming five days after you hear the song. Here's five tracks that, in the words of Miz. Kylie Minogue, I just can't get out of my head:

1. "Kind Of A Girl," Tinted Windows: Yes, the band name is terrible. But the music is all-good from a combo that boasts some of the top names in pop rock: Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick, Taylor Hanson of 90s teen-poppers Hanson, and ex-Smashing Pumpkin James Iha.

This is a perfect slice of warm-weather pop that would sound perfect floating out your car window when you're stuck in traffic on the way to Sea Bright or some other Jersey Shore destination.

2."Know Your Enemy," Green Day: The Bay Area band escaped the pop-punnk ghetto with 2004's "American Idiot," a massive slice of vinyl that perfectly captured the zeitgeist of that tumultuous year. They've returned with the concept album "21st Century Breakdown," that plows some of the same, five-year-old furrows.

Lead singer Billy Joe Armstrong's guitar riff is undeniably catchy. And Tre Cool's drums are huge. But I can't help but wish this song went somewhere else. There is no chorus to speak of. And that middle-eight is something of a saving grace. But as a lead track, it doesn't feel like they're breaking all that much new ground. Maybe it's one of those songs that's best heard in the context of the full disc?

3. "Inbetween Days," Mystery Jets & Esser: If there's a band that's been the subject of as many loving cover versions as The Cure, I don't know who it is.

Full disclosure: "The Head on the Door," the 1985 Cure LP from which this track is derived looms large in my psychic geography. Thus, it'd be pretty hard for anyone to do it justice. But the artists find a way around this challenge by ditching the original's enervating acoustic guitars and Simon Gallup's melodic bass line for drum loops and sequenced rhythms. Check it out and see if you're not dancing in your chair by the end of it:

4. "Bull Black Nova,"Wilco: At this point, the story of how the Chicago band led by songwriter Jeff Tweedy braved record company scorn to successfully jump from alt.country cult act to an art-rock outfit that also happens to be one of America's best bands is a matter of well-recorded history.

Tweedy and Co. return this summer with an eponymously titled LP that's already leaked out onto the Internets. And this is one of the stand-out tracks from that collection.

5. "New in Town," Little Boots: Not too long ago, a particularly astute critic for the U.K. daily The Guardian noted that the 80s revival has seemingly lasted even longer than the actual 80s did themselves. So it'd be easy to dismiss this track as a bit of disposable, sugar-coated pop.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.
But what saves this track is the remix by ace Fred Falke, in whose hands it becomes an undeniably compelling piece of dance-pop that would sound perfect around midnight when the house is thumping and the libations are flowing freely.

They cite influences of "Man Man, Gary Busey and David Bowie" and happen to count "Twilight"'s Jackson Rathbone (vampire Jasper Hale) as a member. The group will be at Croc Rock on June 14 and their sound is definitely in the weird and wonderful category.

A 2002 show at The State Theatre in Easton at which disco nostalgic act KC & The Sunshine Band’s frontman Harry Wayne Casey sang poorly while twirling, capering and creepily dirty dancing with shapely background dancers who were half his age.

A 2006 Musikfest concert at which 1970s prog-rock band Kansas bogged down in long versions of lesser-known songs, skipped many of its hits and saw guitarist Rich Williams mess up the guitar solo on “Carry On Wayward Son,” while singer Steve Walsh’s shot voice was mostly a shrill squeak. Band members looked like they wanted to leave as soon as possible.

A 2007 show at Musikfest in which ‘70s singer Meat Loaf wore a long-haired wig to approximate his appearance 30 years earlier and bantered suggestively with his young backup singer, or (also with a shot voice) croaked out snippets of lyrics while his backup vocalists carried the burden — sometimes while he sat resting.

A 2003 Crocodile Rock concert by Third Eye Blind, a 2003 Penn’s Peak show by Cheap Trick and a 2006 Penn’s Peak show by The Pretenders, in which they skipped their biggest hits and sometimes their lesser ones, too.

The Lehigh Valley has seen its share of bad concerts.

So we’re sure you have, too.

The summer concert season getting underway and some really good shows are coming up, but we’re interested in the bad ones.

It’s easy to pick on the lesser shows — former “The Young and the Restless” actor Michael Damian’s opening for Taylor Dayne at Mayfair in 2002 was just truly awful, but he was an opening act.

And it’s subjective — I didn’t like Nickelback at Allentown Fair in 2005, but plenty of letter-to-the-editor writers did; I thought Michelle Branch’s solo acoustic turn at the fair in 2003 was riveting, others though it was revolting.

Alternative/indie rock band Jaded Son, which lists its base as Mount Bethel and Philadelphia, is the only band with a local connection left among the10 that will compete in the semifinals of Musikfest’s new Mid-Atlantic Band Competition, the festival announced today.

Two weeks on online voting narrowed the field of 20 bands, but Allentown’s Sunsets North was among those eliminated.

The band based next-closest to the Valley still in the competition is the Dirk Quinn Band from Phoenixville, Chester County.

Others are Chris Vipond and the Stanley Street Band of Altoona; Dephonic, The Hustle, Parkwright and Reilly, all of Philadelphia; The Gary Bonnett Band of Rock Cave, W.Va.; No Second Troy of Washington, D.C.; and Shayna Zaid & The Catch of New York City.

Jaded Son played at Allentown’s Mayfair festival two weeks ago and next plays Crocodile Rock Café in the city June 12 – a week before voting for the second round of the competition ends.

In the Mid-Atlantic Band Competition, the public is invited to visit the official Musikfest Web site, www.fest.org; listen to participating bands’ audio clips and vote for their favorite performers. The second round of online voting began at 10 a.m. today and continue through midnight June 20.

At the end of the second round, the four bands with the most votes will move on to the finals at Musikfest, where they will perform live at the Plaza Tropical stage Aug. 3-4.

The Mid-Atlantic Band Competition is sponsored by ArtsQuest, ClassEMedia and Northampton Community College. The winner of the competition will earn a prize package that includes a professional video shoot by ClassEMedia and a guaranteed booking at Musikfest 2010. For more information on the competition, visit www.fest.org.

If You're A Power-Pop Fan ...
... of a certain age, the chances are pretty good you have more
than one record by The dB's in your record collection.

Between
1981 and 1988, the New York combo with roots in the fertile musical ground of Winston-Salem, N.C.. turned out a
quartet of literate, jangly pop that was adored by aficionados and largely
ignored by the record-buying public.

The band was anchored by songwriters Peter
Holsapple and Chris Stamey, who were a kind of post-punk Lennon& McCartney.

The bespectacled Holsapple wrote such melodic gems as "Judy" (from
their debut record "Stands for deciBels"), while Stamey was responsible for such tart and angular tunes as "Ask for Jill" (off the 1982 follow-up "Repercussion.")

That the
records were nearly impossible to find added to their charm for fans, but
frustrated the critical prospects for the combo. Their freshmen and sophomore
releases were only available as English imports. And, in the case of their
third LP, the label went belly-up shortly after it was released.

Stamey, departed the band in 1982. He released a clutch of solo records
and is now a successful producer in Chapel Hill, N.C.

With
Stamey's departure, Holsapple moved front and center, serving as lead singer
and primary songwriter until The dB's folded in 1988. He spent several years as
a touring musician with R.E.M. contributing guitars and keyboards to that
band's 1991 breakthrough album "Out of Time."

For much of the last
two decades, Holsapple has worked as the touring keyboardist and guitarist with
pop-rockers Hootie and the Blowfish. He was also a member of The Continental
Drifters, a New Orleans-based band whose line-up included Bangles' guitarist
Vicki Peterson and bassist Mark Walton, formerly of 1980s psychedelists The Dream
Syndicate.

In 1991,
Holsapple and Stamey reunited for the first time in more than a decade to
record "Mavericks," an understated and largely acoustic record that
included one of their finest songwriting moments in the tune
"Angels."

In 2005,
The dB's regrouped for a series of reunion shows, and set about working on
their first record of new material in more than two decades. With the exception
of one, download-only track, the LP is still unfinished, and there's no clear
release date in sight.

But for The dB's faithful, there's Holsapple and
Stamey's reunion LP "hERE aND nOW," which is due out on June 9 on
Bar/None Records.

The 14-track CD largely picks up where "Mavericks" left off, mining a rich vein of acoustic-based music that finds its foundation in Holsapple's and Stamey'sEverly Brothers-style harmonies.

The record includes contributions from dB's bandmates Gene Holder (bass) and Will Rigby (drums), along with Superchunk's Jon Wurster and Glory Fountain's John Chumbris, as well as veteran Tar Heel musicians Bob Northcott and Robert Keely. Legendary sax-man Branford Marsalis also appears on two tracks.

Stand-out tracks for your 'blogger include "Early in the Morning," "Widescreen World," and "Tape-Op Blues," whose lyrics should sound mightily familiar to anyone who's ever spent any time in a recording studio.

One true stunner is "My Friend the Sun," a tune by '60s psychedelists The Family, which is a showcase for some gorgeous acoustic guitarwork by the two longtime collaborators.

Holsapple,
who currently lives in Durham, N.C., (after a brief stopover in Jim Thorpe, Carbon County) took a few minutes recently to answer
questions about "hERE aND nOW."

Q: The record, I suppose, is a sequel of sorts to "Mavericks," the record
that you and Mr. Stamey put out on Rhino in 1991. Can you talk a bit about the
decision to undertake a new studio project?

A: We hadn't worked together
for a long while. Part of the longevity of our partnership is due, I think, to
time off from each other, to work with other artists. Chris especially, as a
noted record producer and mixer, was busy with his studio work. I toured relentlessly with Hootie as their keyboard/utility guy for many years. There was a benefit being
held in Raleigh for medical expenses for our friend Alejandro Escovedo a few
years ago.

I saw that, knew Chris had done a bunch of work with Al and asked if
we might consider doing a few songs in his set as a duo. He said sure, so we
rehearsed a few songs and played them. It was a little rusty, but we found our
footing and decided that the sound of our two voices together was pretty cool.
So we started talking about doing a follow-up to "Mavericks."

Q: Was this an offshoot
of the sessions you did for the reconvened dB's, or was there a conscious
decision to start making another duo record?

A: No, not specifically. We started working together before we reconvened The dB's. As we were going through songs, some of them seemed to want the
band's rhythm section on them. Then we got asked to play a couple dB's shows in
Chicago, so we rehearsed and did them. They were pretty much fun. We decided
that we should look at a new dB's record as well, independent of the duo album.

Q: It's pretty fair to say that you and Chris
have been recording together for nearly all of your lives. What was in the
water at Reynolds High School (in their native Winston-Salem, N.C.) in the
1960s that gave birth to such a prolific generation of musicians?

A:Chris has always said it was the tobacco curing in the air on fall
mornings that informed us; it's a sweet smell that permeated everything, so
maybe that's it.

Q: As you work together
now, in what ways has Chris changed?

A: I think Chris has become a stronger singer and writer over the years.
He's always been great, but time has increased his natural abilities. He's also
become a superior producer; I love the Thad Cockrell and Caitlin Cary albums
he's done, and he just mixed an album for a band I joined called Luego that
sounds fantastic

Q: In what ways have you
changed?

A: I haven't changed. That's not true. I've been married three times and
had three children since we recorded "Mavericks" which will certainly
change one. I spent ten years in a roots-rock semi-supergroup and cut three
albums with them.

That changed some of my songwriting, I guess. I've moved
around the country from New York to LA to New Orleans and back to North
Carolina, which has also reshaped things. I don't know, that's a difficult
question to answer.

Q: And how have these
changes affected the way you work together? Or have they?

A: As far as working together, we still have a nice dynamic. We each hear
things that the other may not hear. I tend to let Chris worry about recording
levels and compression and delay rates; he's just a skilled producer who knows
that sort of stuff far better than I do. We have that unspoken communication a
lot of the time, too, which comes from being friends for forty years

Q: Can you talk about
the status of the putative dB's CD? Where are you in the recording process?

A: There are a number of songs recorded for the new dB's album. They have
had some amount of tracking done on them (overdubs and some tentative stabs at
lead vocals) but are not finished yet. We're not even sure if the whole of the
album has been written yet.

These are really good songs, I think, and we're not
interested in putting out anything that isn't worthy of comparison to what
we've released in the past. Some bands get back together for a quick buck and
nostalgic shows.

We would like to do it like Mission of Burma and put out the
best records of our career if we're going to reunite. I would hesitate to give a date for the release as I don't want to
disappoint anyone if we don't get it out by then. Suffice it to say, good
things take time, and the new dB's record is going to be a very good thing.

Q: You've recently
become a blogger -- both on your own site, and for the New York Times. How's it
feel exercising that set of muscles?

A: I love it! I've been writing on and off since I was in high school,
and these opportunities to blog have been very rewarding. Hopefully, I'll get a
book off the ground soon.

Q: Is every songwriter
really a frustrated novelist/journalist?

A: That would be hard to ascertain. I'm a songwriter who's just a
frustrated bassist

Q: Are there touring
plans for the new duo CD? Any ideas on the intinerary?

A: We're in the process of determining a booking agency as we speak.
There are a couple shows pencilled in, but as regards a specific tour
itinerary, I couldn't say. (Maybe we should play Penn's Peak, near Jim Thorpe
where we evacuated to after Katrina!)

Q: Obviously, Chris is
busy with his studio and you've your own musical ventures. Is it a challenge fitting in dates around those day-to-day demands?

A: We would invariably stick committments for "hERE aND nOW" at the front of the queue

Q: You told [Raleigh
News & Observer music critic] David Menconi that you were skeptical about
sales for this LP. I assume that was tongue-in-cheek, but to what extent has
the rise of downloading and the collapse of the majors changed what you do?

A: Well, I'm not
sure that I was skeptical, per se, but I do try to have realistic hopes and
dreams for this album. I'm a middle-aged bald guy that would potentially hold
as much interest to a Jonas Brothers fan as an overripe banana, even as we're
competing for the same Yankee dollar. My biggest plan is to be very thrilled at
whatever waves this album will make and be very satisfied with something
considerably less than multi-platinum status.

Doylestown native Pink will play her first major headlining arena tour show in Philadelphia when her Funhouse tour stops Oct. 3 at Wachovia Center, it was announced today.

The date gives Pink, who grew up as Alecia Moore in the Bucks County borough, a dozen dates on the North America leg of her world tour, which is now in Australia, before it returns abroad Oct. 14. The previous closets date was at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Oct. 5.

Tickets to the Philly show go on sale at noon Friday through ComcastTIX at comcastTIX.com, 1-800-298-4200. The Web site was not showing the date yet, and ticket prices were not revealed, but the prices of tickets remaining for Madison Square Garden are $60.95 and $87.10.

Tickets are also available at the Wachovia Complex Box Office. Tickets are subject to applicable service charges and event time and date are subject to change.

The tour is the singer’s first in the United States since 2006.

Abroad, Pink sold out London’s 02 Arena and sold more than 1 million tickets in Europe. In Australia she has sold out 58 arena shows with acrobatics and dancers flying above the fans.

“The pink set was a cross between a circus and a Moulin Rouge-inspired burlesque stage with stairs, slides and a trapeze, making it not just a concert but a stage show to rival the best,” the Adelaide Independent Weekly said.

“Strapped into an acrobat's harness, she devotes much of her performance to trumpeting her skills as a trapeze artist, swooping and diving high above the room whilst belting out highlights from her new album,” said an account in the Irish Independent.

Pink’s fifth album, “Funhouse,” was released in October, with her first solo No. 1 hit, “So What.” She has sold more than 30 albums worldwide.

Live Nation, the huge concert-venue-ticket conglomerate, announced today it will drop service fees on lawn tickets to hundreds of Philadelphia-area amphitheater concerts every Wednesday throughout the summer, starting this Wednesday.

For a concert by No Doubt on June 11, the savings would be $5 on a $15 ticket -- 33 percent. For The Fray and Jack's Mannequin later this month, that's a savings of $8.45 on what would have been a $28.45 ticket. For Dave Matthews Band in September, the savings would be $12.35 on a $52.35 ticket.

The discount could affect the price of 5 million tickets, Live Naton said. It called Wednesday's initial discount "the biggest one-day sale in concert business history."

“No Service Fee Wednesdays,” will kick off at 12:01 Wednesday, only at www.LiveNation.com. The offer will continue each Wednesday.

“Summer concerts are a great escape in these tough times,” Live Nation President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Rapino said. “We wanted to do something that had never been done before and 'No Service Fee Wednesdays' provide incredible value to millions of music fans to attend the hottest concerts this summer.”

The promotion is not valid in combination with other special pricing offers and is subject to availability. Tickets without service fees are available at all Live Nation-ticketed amphitheaters for concerts including: